The Forbidden City

by Geremie R. Barmé

Read supplementary material prepared by Geremie Barmé Read the Bldg Blog interview with Mary Beard about the Wonders of the World series(Part I and Part II) The Forbidden City (Zijin Cheng) lying at the heart of Beijing formed the hub of the Celestial Empire for five centuries. Over the past century it has led a reduced life as the refuge for a deposed emperor, as well as a heritage museum for monarchist, republican, and socialist citizens, and it has been celebrated and excoriated as a symbol of all that was magnificent and terrible in dynastic China’s legacy. The Forbidden City’s vermilion walls have fueled literary fantasies that have become an intrinsic part of its disputed and documented history. Mao Zedong even considered razing the entire structure to make way for the buildings of a new socialist China. The fictions surrounding the Forbidden City have also had an international reach, and writers like Franz Kafka, Elias Canetti, Jorge Luis Borges, and Mervyn Peake have all succumbed to its myths. The politics it enshrined have provided the vocabulary of power that is used in China to the present day, though it is now better known as a film set or the background of displays of opera, rock, and fashion. Geremie Barmé peels away the veneer of power, secrecy, inscrutability, and passions of imperial China, to provide a new and original history of the culture, politics, and architecture of the Forbidden City. Designed to overawe the visitor with the power of imperial China, the Forbidden City remains one of the true wonders of the world.

Genres: China, History, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 2008

About the author

Geremie R. Barmé is an historian, cultural critic, filmmaker, translator and web-journal editor who works on Chinese cultural and intellectual history from the early modern period (1600s) to the present. He is Founding Director of the Australian Centre on China in the World in the ANU College of Asia & the Pacific, The Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, where he also edits the online e-journal China Heritage Quarterly.

Reviews

[Fiona · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, comprehensive but dry history of The Forbidden City read in preparation for a visit there in a few weeks. The chapters read as if they were written as separate essays so the information becomes repetitive. It’s given me the background I was looking for however, and I particularly enjoyed learning about daily life in imperial times. There are plenty of black and white photographs but they are sometimes of poor quality and I would have liked more maps of the site (but that’s what Google is for!).

[Issendai · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book I've found that gives detailed information on how the Qing-dynasty emperors actually lived--not just what a typical day was like and what they ate, but small details like how they got dressed in the morning (Chinese emperors dressed themselves, unlike European elites) and what their favorite meats were (not pork! A surprise to anyone who's knowledgeable about Chinese cooking). A must for social-history junkies.

[Tricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Informative read but it was very dry and it was tough to get through.

I think this is for someone who is either visiting there or is doing research into the topic

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full of information that would have been much more interesting if it had been fleshed out more and linked across chapters. I would give it four stars for information and two stars for "enjoyment.". Nonetheless, while there, I think I will be very glad I read it.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is packed with information about the Forbidden City. It is not told in a linear fashion, but that’s why I found it charming.

[Liam · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Lu Xun also spoke of the unsettling ability of Chinese culture to transform and homogenise anything that came within its thrall. He called it a soysauce vat (jianggang) that darkened anything, or anybody, that entered it." (187)

[Roberta Wall · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read before traveling to China

[Julian · Rating 2 out of 5]

interesting topic but weirdly structured and a bumpy read